Chaim Potok: Confronting Modernity Through the Lens of Tradition

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments | ix Introduction | xi Daniel Walden PA R T 1 T H E N OV E L S 1 The Chosen: Defining American Judaism | 3 Kathryn McClymond 2 The Three-Pronged Dialectic: Understanding Conflict in Potok’s Early Fiction | 20 Jessica Lang 3 Guardians of the Torah: Ambiguity and Antagonism in The Promise | 30 Victoria Aarons 4 Daedalus Redeemed: Asher Lev’s Journey from Rebellion to Rapprochement | 47 S. Lillian Kremer 5 Davita’s Harp: The Silence of Violence and the Limits of the Imagination | 58 Susanne Klingenstein 6 The Book of Lights: A Book of Choices | 80 Sanford E. Marovitz contents VIII CONTENTS 7 History and Responsibility: An Assessment of Potok’s “Non-Jewish” I Am the Clay | 97 Nathan P. Devir PA R T 2 LO O K I N G B AC K : M E M O R I E S O F P OTO K 8 Choosing the Chosen: A Reappraisal of The Chosen | 119 Hugh Nissenson 9 Chaim Potok: A Zwischenmensch (“Between Person”) in the Cultures | 128 Daniel Walden 10 Chaim Potok and the Question of Jewish Writing | 134 Jonathan Rosen 11 Chaim Potok: A Literary Biography | 141 Adena Potok 12 Chaim Potok Is No Longer With Us, but His Lessons Remain | 145 Jane Eisner 13 Adena Potok on I Am the Clay | 148 Nathan P. Devir 14 Chaim Potok: My Life as a Writer | 160 Chaim Potok Contributors | 175 Index | 177 ...